Star Trek actor gets behind new university spin-out that aims to develop drugs to help sufferers manage chronic pain

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By

Jessica Davies

March 16, 2017 Updated: 10:08 a.m. GMT

UK-based private equity and venture capital firm Kingsley Capital has invested in a new Oxford University spin-out that will research the use of non-addictive medicinal cannabis to treat chronic conditions.

Kingsley has provided £10 million of funding to Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies, which will seek to identify new medicinal therapies by researching to role of cannabinoids in treatments.

OCT will research alternatives to opiate pain relief that do not contain the addictive and psychoactive chemical tetrahydrocannabinol, according to a spokesman for Kingsley.

The Star Trek actor Patrick Stewart, who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the popular television series and suffers from ortho-arthritis, is supporting the research.

He said: "I enthusiastically support the Oxford University Cannabis Research Plan. This is an important step forward for Britain in a field of research that has for too long been held back by prejudice, fear and ignorance. I believe this programme of research might result in benefits for people like myself as well as millions of others.”

Medicinal cannabis is also expected to be able to ease symptoms associated with a range of other inflammatory diseases and painful acute and chronic conditions.

Baroness Molly Meacher, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform, has also lent her public support to the initiative.

Neil Mahapatra, managing partner of Kingsley, said: “Medical cannabis and cannabinoid medicine is already helping patients with some of the most distressing conditions across the world. However, research into the specific pathways and mechanisms that create this benefit is limited and long overdue.”